Blue Oyster Cult to play Ridgefield Feb. 2

Published 2:51 pm, Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Blue Oyster Cult will perform at the Ridgefield Playhouse on Saturday, Feb. 2, at 8 p.m.

Blue Oyster Cult will perform at the Ridgefield Playhouse on Saturday, Feb. 2, at 8 p.m.

Photo: Contributed Photo

Blue Oyster Cult to play Ridgefield Feb. 2

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Get ready for an extra helping of cowbell.

On Saturday, Feb. 2, hard rockers Blue Oyster Cult will perform at the Ridgefield Playhouse. Rising to prominence in the 1970s, the group was powered by science fiction and fantasy-inspired lyrics as well as heavy guitar, bass and drum hooks -- selling more than 14 million albums worldwide.

Blue Oyster Cult is known for such hits as "Godzilla," "Burnin' for You" and "(Don't Fear) The Reaper," the latter inspiring the classic Christopher Walken and Will Ferrell "Saturday Night Live" "More Cowbell" sketch.

We recently spoke with Eric Bloom, the group's longtime guitarist and main vocalist, who splits his time between Long Island, N.Y., and Florida.

Q: For fans who haven't seen you guys in a while, what is a current Blue Oyster Cult show like?

A: Well that's in the eye of the beholder. ... We play the obvious; we play the hits and we play tracks deep into our past. The Ridgefield show will be people that are there to hear us; it's not a casino show, it's not a state fair, so in the Ridgefield set we'll be going deeper into our catalogue and playing some not so obvious cuts.

Q: Can you talk about your songwriting process and how you incorporate science-fiction inspired lyrics?

A: We have friends and associates over the years who have written lyrics for us; sometimes they just send them and sometimes we ask for them. Some of our earlier material came from Sandy Pearlman (the group's first manager), who had a lot of poetry in envelopes in our band house in our earliest days and we could just open that up and try to write a song with what he had. My association with Michael Moorcock, who's a fantasy and science-fiction and history writer, I asked him for some lyrics and he sent me some and I wrote a few songs with him. I wrote a song with Eric Von Lustbader (a fantasy and thriller author who is currently writing the Jason Bourn novels first started by Robert Ludlum).

Q: How did "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" come about?

A: I didn't write that song, but I believe that Buck Roeser (who plays guitar and sings with the band), who did write it and sings it, had a bit of a health scare when he was a young man, and it inspired him to write a song about love after death and that's what it's about.

Q: Heavy metal is a term often applied to Blue Oyster Cult. Do you think it's an accurate description?

A: Labels are difficult; there are about 17 factions of the heavy-metal term these days. There's death metal and black metal and euro metal and thrash metal. I don't even know what half of them really mean. The generic term that's a little more proper for us would be hard rock. Heavy metal has been laid on us, but I think a song like "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" is the furthest thing from that, so I never felt like we really fit the mold.

Q: What did you guys think the first time you saw the "More Cowbell" skit on "SNL" when it premiered in 2000?

A: We loved it. I saw it live; they never told us they were doing it, but I was watching it at home. It was a rare Saturday night off and I'm a big fan of "SNL" so I was watching.

Q: Do people quote the skit to you a lot?

A: Most people know about it. "More cowbell" has certainly crossed into American literature. I was reading a car magazine one day and it said a certain car didn't live up to their expectations, it needed "more cowbell."

Erik Ofgang is a freelance writer in Connecticut; erikofgang@gmail.com